Mind over Matter

It's Ob-Gyn clinic week, and you know what that means (well maybe you don't, but I'm about to tell you...): more free time to post! 

Real talk: I may have been called out (very nicely, I might add) by some friends for not posting as regularly, so I decided to take this as an opportunity to share some more thoughts this week. Because let's be honest: all of us always have a couple of things floating around in our heads.  I love hearing about other people's ideas about how the Lord is working in their days and weeks and lives, and I hope that you'll indulge me by listening to mine. 

Last weekend, I had a 24 hour call. For me, staying up is all about the mental attitude. The second that I admit that I am tired, my eyes start to droop, and soon enough I'm sleeping where I'm standing. No matter how tired I feel, I have to tell myself that what I'm doing is just simply the most interesting thing I've ever done, that I'm super energetic and happy, and that most of all, I am NOT tired.  "I'm strong, I've got this" just keeps playing in repeat. It's all mind over matter.

Often times, I can see my spiritual life the same way. If I just work hard enough and am strong enough, I can conquer my sin (or if not that, at least please the Lord). If I think about this mindset for about 2 seconds, it's immediately clear how contrary this idea is to the idea of salvation by grace in the gospel. But God also calls us to obedience, which requires some effort, so where does that leave us?

The alternative as I see it, is passively relying on the Lord to work in you. It's more of the mindset "Let go and let God." Trusting and relying on the Lord is crucial. We must humble ourselves and acknowledge that all of the power we have to do anything comes from God. At the same time, I can't help but think that sometimes this view is used as an excuse not to be actively working for the Lord in our lives. An extreme view of this allows us to sit passively by, doing as we please, and expecting the Lord to come around and make radical change. Not that He couldn't do that, but we also lose out on not being a part of the process. By actively working in something that the Lord is doing in our lives, we gain so much - we learn about His character and His plans, and hopefully, we fall a little more in love with Him. 

And so, neatly summarized, the solution as I see it:

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. 

~Philippians 2:12-13

So true and easy to say, yet so hard to act out: the dichotomy between acknowledging God's complete power over our lives and submission to Him while also working with all of our might to serve and please Him. 

Another verse I like that summarizes in a different way,

Be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of the His might, put on the full armor of God. 

~Ephesians 6:10-11

I really like a way one devotional I read summarizes it: "God supplies the resources, we supply the effort."

So my challenge for us today is to get out of that MY mind over matter attitude for our spiritual lives and step into a more "God resources,  me effort" mentality. 

It's a struggle for sure, but I think the only way to get our heads around this one is to carefully assess our hearts as we're dealing with challenges in our lives. Are we surrendering the power over the situation to God? Our we really working with our whole mind and might?